How Kobe Bryant’s greatness inspired the world

The tragic news of the death of basketball legend Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven other people in a helicopter crash has had an impact around the world, even beyond basketball fans.

Kobe’s extraordinary basketball achievements once made some commentators think the unthinkable: that he could even challenge Michael Jordan for the title of the Greatest of All Time (GOAT). In his 20 years of professional basketball, all spent at the Los Angeles Lakers, Kobe won five NBA titles and played in 15 All-Star games. He once scored 81 points in a single game (the second-highest point total for an individual player). He scored 60 in his farewell appearance, at the age of 37, in 2016. And he won two gold medals with Team USA at the Olympics.

Kobe’s star continued to shine even after his professional basketball career ended. He won an Academy Award for Dear Basketball – an animated short film based on the letter he wrote announcing his retirement.

To understand the impact Kobe had on the game and on so many people’s lives, you need to go behind the scenes. His work ethic and determination were unparalleled by any other player, except perhaps for the one and only Jordan. Both players had the same trainer, Tim Grover.

But Kobe’s worth ethic was apparent even before he became a professional. When he was a high-school kid, he would start training at 5am. And as a professional player, he would often start even earlier.

When he broke his right hand, he carried on training with his left hand at full intensity. He used to train for six hours or more until he made 800 shots. He once played with a broken nose just to test his body’s reaction. And he once stayed on court to shoot two free throws after tearing his Achilles tendon – one of the worst injuries an athlete can sustain.

Following Kobe’s death, some have tried to focus on the shady aspects of his private life, questioning why so many are mourning his death in such an unqualified way. But to say that great achievers like Kobe are heroes is not the same as idolising every aspect of their lives.

What matters is what Kobe stood for and how he has inspired so many others. ‘On your best days, the days you landed a big account or aced a big test or just survived a battle with traffic, you felt like Kobe’, writesLA Times columnist Bill Plaschke, in a moving obituary, capturing what Kobe meant for the city of LA and to his fans all over the world.

The myriad stories on social media about how he touched the lives of so many people remind us why we need heroes. Today human potential is often viewed with scepticism. The prevalent view is that aiming too high and being obsessed with success is hubristic and responsible for many social ills, from social alienation to rampant materialism to the destruction of the environment.

When faced with such cynicism, the flame burning inside of us can slowly go out. What heroes can do is reignite that flame. They remind us that we can do better. Their success is an inspiration, but also a challenge. Heroes say to us: ‘If I did all this, you can do it too.’ In fact, the greatest heroes compel us to do it. And when our heroes suddenly pass away, as Kobe did yesterday, they remind us how precious and important our own lives are.

The best tribute we can pay to heroes like Kobe Bryant is to feel pride in our efforts, to make every day count, and to recognise the potential of all humans to become achievers and historymakers.

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Ven Oods

“and yet knows nothing about science or medicine.”
Why would not knowing that prevent one from benefiting from it? (And appreciating the efforts of the pioneering scientists).

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28th January 2020 at 4:38 pm

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Adamsson 66

27th January 2020 at 11:13 pm

Basketball is a big sport in Greece but this is a British website and we have no interest in men’s netball

James Cookson

28th January 2020 at 7:51 am

We are interested in tragedies and American culture.

Ven Oods

2nd February 2020 at 9:45 am

Well… up to a point, Lord Copper.
It was a tragic incident, for sure, but many braver people must have died all over the world that day, most rather less well-rewarded than this man, and their passing went unremarked.

jessica christon

27th January 2020 at 7:48 pm

I have always struggled to see sports players as “heroes” in any meaningful sense; of course it’s tragic, but the hero worship is OTT.

James Cookson

28th January 2020 at 7:50 am

Most people cannot live without heroes

Ven Oods

2nd February 2020 at 9:46 am

And yet, when their heroes pass on, they somehow do manage to live. (Admittedly, probably by adopting another hero…)

steve moxon

27th January 2020 at 7:35 pm

Pleas someone explain why a massive drive to get laid lots, leading to an obsessive compulsion with shoving a ball through a hoop, somehow qualifies as being a hero.
Sure, I get that we’re all sick of bigging up skirt for way less even than this, and that we should ‘celebrate’ (cringe) fellahs more, but guys generally: unsung minor but real heroes.

steve moxon

27th January 2020 at 7:21 pm

Who here in the UK gives a flying toss about a US basketball player?!
Nobody’s even heard of him.
Outside of basket ball fans (a minuscule proportion of the UK population) surely hardly anyone has ever come across the guy. So why the eulogising? Not coz ee iz ov a effnick mine orwitty iz it?
Daft elitist group-think virtue-signalling-but-actually-hate-mongering habits die hard, it seems.

steve moxon

27th January 2020 at 7:18 pm

Who here in the UK gives a flying toss about a US basketball player?!
Nobody’s even heard of him.
Come on Spiked, outside of basket ball fans (a minuscule proportion of the UK population) surely hardly anyone has ever come across the guy. So why the eulogising? It’s not coz ee iz black, is it?
Dumb elitest groupthink virtue-signalling-but-actually-hate-mongering habits die hard, it seems.

steve moxon

27th January 2020 at 8:01 pm

[Not my fault, this double posting: it’s the dumb AI censorship tool on here, requiring you to do slight re-writes to get through the damn thing.]

Filbert Flange

27th January 2020 at 6:44 pm

Ok,ok… I’ll self censor. The gist of my comment held in moderation is that we are indeed circling the drain if we elevate the likes of the ex Mr Bryant to hero status. But boy could he sell stuff!

Filbert Flange

27th January 2020 at 3:44 pm

I used a naughty word I guess… Stay tuned.

Steve Roberts

27th January 2020 at 3:42 pm

Lovely piece from Sotirakopoulos, and it needs saying this is no “Diana” moment, yes there will be much grieving from so many who didn’t personally know the man but this is of a different order.
A difference the cynics and naysayers will not see, his passing will be felt, even tangentially because of what he achieved, on merit, consistently for a very long time in the white heat of competition.
Clearly he dedicated himself from a young age and continued into adulthood, genuinely striving to be the best a human can be, to push the boundaries, to have desire and commitment, to achieve elite status and give back to others a great deal too not least by inspiring others to strive too.
This of course goes against the grain today, of generalised passivity, mediocrity, victimhood ,lack of vision and apathy, he must also have had a very supportive , judgemental and strong adult presence around him , one does not easily reach his level of attainment , it is not just natural ability, in the very early years it takes adult responsibility and commitment too to develop such potential greatness, yes it was only sport, but there are many lessons we could learn from his short life,surely from which many could benefit.

steve moxon

27th January 2020 at 7:23 pm

But we’re here in Britland: who’s ever heard of this geezer?

R Rodd

27th January 2020 at 1:03 pm

“But to say that great achievers like Kobe are heroes is not the same as idolising every aspect of their lives.”

Skillfully avoiding the rape case that he admitted to.

Jim Lawrie

27th January 2020 at 3:06 pm

And bought his way out of. Family man and all that.
I’m sure more will come out now.

steve moxon

27th January 2020 at 7:25 pm

Oh surely not, with him being non-‘white’, eh?
Wouldnt he have to be at least a serial offender?

Mark Houghton

27th January 2020 at 12:16 pm

I’d prefer to have my heroes to have virtues that were a bit more important than being a fantastic athlete and furthering my own self interest.

steve moxon

27th January 2020 at 7:29 pm

Hitting the nail on the head.
Bloke with maybe way too much testostertone avoids becoming gangster when he finds out that just shoving balls through a hoop can get you laid big time.

James Cookson

28th January 2020 at 7:53 am

What a small bigoted person you are. Kobe Bryant is the son of a basketballer who was always destined to be a basketball player. Not all Black Americans grow up in the “ghetto” milieu.

James Cookson

28th January 2020 at 7:52 am

Who are your heroes then? You seem like one of those posturing internet types who talks about how we should celebrate doctors instead of athletes and yet knows nothing about science or medicine.